Fade to black: EP 3 - Triplex
by maxrpg
Summary: SG-1 are stuck at the SGC while they recover from the injuries sustained in their last mission, while some of them enjoy the time off and have to catch up on their work, others feel pretty bored with nothing to do. If they only knew what was about to happen...
1. Chapter 1

It's an ordinary day at the SGC, very uneventful with nothing much going on, due to the injuries sustain by members of SG-1 during their last mission, they've been off duty for the last four weeks and just hanging around the base.

Vala has been with Daniel helping him to catalogue various artefacts and literature, Carter has been up and about in her lab using the time to catch up on some of her old projects, Mitchell and Teal'c have been down in the gym working out and helping to train some new recruits, Alisana's unique physiology allows her to heal rather quickly, in just three weeks she was fully healed and is now as fit and healthy as ever, she has been spending a lot of time in her quarters studying for tests given to her by O'Neill and learning about Earth cultures.

Carter is in her lab sitting at a table in the middle of the room typing on her laptop, she's trying to find a way to increase the efficiency of the Naquadah generators, Dr Jeremy Hanson, a fellow scientist assigned to the Naquadah generator project and working along side Carter comes over with two cups of fresh coffee.

"Here you go." says Jeremy as he places a cup of coffee on the table next to Carter.

Carter is engrossed in her work and didn't hear Jeremy, "Sam?" says Jeremy.

"Huh" says Carter, "Oh..thanks." she says as she turns and sees the cup.

Carter picks up the cup and takes a few sips, then places the cup back down and gets back to work, she's distracted by strange sounds entering the room but shrugs it off.

A few minutes later and the sounds are really starting to bug her, she tries to ignore them but can't, "What..What is that?" she says as she looks at Jeremy.

Jeremy turns and listens for a moment, he shakes his head, "No idea." he says.

"Well it's annoying." says Carter, she puts her hands on the table and pushes back her chair and stands up, she leaves the room and enters the hall, looking side to side to try and figure out where the sounds are coming from she finds a direction and heads towards it.

As she walks down the hall the sounds get louder, Walter is walking down the hall in the opposite direction, "Morning." he says to Carter as he passes her by, "Morning." replies Carter, she stops and looks back, "Do you know where those sounds are coming from?" she asks.

Walter turns and points down the hall, he's pointing towards Alisana's quarters, "Thanks." says Carter.

Carter reaches Alisana's quarters, she knocks on the door, opens it and steps inside, as soon as she opened the door the sound became deafening, it's very loud music coming from a stereo in the corner of the room.

Carter sees Alisana near the back of the room with her back turned singing and dancing..badly, "Alisana" she shouts trying to get her attention, "Ali..." she begins to say and then walks towards the stereo, she turns the music off.

Alisana continues dancing and singing for a few more seconds before she realises the music has stopped, she turns and sees Carter standing firmly by the stereo with her arms folded and looking at her with a little anger in her eyes.

"Oh hi Sam." says Alisana.

"Yeah hi. What are you doing?" asks Carter.

"Errm..dancing." says Alisana with a cheeky little grin, "Was the music too loud?" she asks.

Carter nods gently, "Just a bit." she says.

"Sorry." says Alisana biting her lip.

"Aren't you suppose to be studying?" asks Carter.

"Oh I've finished." says Alisana as she walks to the bed and picks up a bunch of papers.

Carter looks a little shocked, "Already?" she says, "Let me see." she adds, Alisana passes her the bunch of papers.

After looking at the papers, Carter can see she has finished and done pretty good work too, "That's not bad." she says.

"Thanks." says Alisana.

"OK well can't you find something a little more productive to do than this?" asks Carter while pointing at the stereo.

Alisana sits on the bed, "I don't know what to do, I've done all the tests and read all the books." she says.

Carter sympathises with her but can't really help her right now, "Well you'll have to find something, I need to get back to my work." says Carter, "Keep the music volume down, OK?" she adds.

"OK. Sorry." replies Alisana as she watches Carter leave the room.

Alisana drops backwards to lay on the bed with her feet hanging over the side, she lets out a breath feeling really bored, a few minutes later she grabs the end of the bed and pulls herself up, she then heads out of her quarters.

* * *

Daniel is in his research room with Vala going through books and items brought back from the Yaculum, the facility used by the alliance of races to store all their knowledge and technology.

Vala has been going through a large box of books, while Daniel is at the table in the middle of the room, the table top is covered with various objects while he enters pictures and descriptions of them all in to his database, Vala is taking books out of the box and placing them on a table near the door.

Vala coughs as she places a large book on the table and a plume of dust hits her in the face, "*Cough*...do you really need all these?" she says, wafting away the dust with her hands.

"Yes." says Daniel.

"They're just a load of old dusty books. Why can't you ever find something valuable." says Vala.

"Vala, these are valuable." says Daniel, "Not everything of value has be made of ..gold and jewels." he adds.

"Of course it does, people buy gold and jewels, who wants to buy a pile of old books...apart from you." replies Vala.

"You can't put a value on the knowledge these books can provide, they're ..." says Daniel who then stops mid sentence as he looks at Vala, she has her back turned facing the box of books and wiggling her head about, he knows she's making faces, "Are you making fun of me?" he asks.

Vala's head stops moving and she turns to look at him, "No." she says, trying not to look guilty.

"Just...organise the books." says Daniel, and he gets back to his work, he stops again when he hears a loud thud.

"I hate books." shouts Vala, dropping a large book back in the box, "Can't we do something else." she asks.

"No" says Daniel, firmly, he shakes his head in annoyance and gets back to work again.

Vala gets a mischievous look in her eye, she walks around the table to Daniel, she rubs her finger in a circle on his shoulder, "Daniel.." she says in a seductive voice.

Once again Daniel stops working, "What?!" he says, then Vala moves herself around him and sits on his lap with her arms around him, "Lets do something fun." she says.

Daniel clearly isn't interested, "Like what?" he asks, Vala now gently rubs his chest with her hand, "You know." she says, Daniel closes his eyes, lowers his head and let's out a frustrated breath, then he looks up at Vala who is smiling cheekily and sticking out her tongue between her teeth.

* * *

A few minutes later, Alisana enters the room, she sees Vala on Daniels lap holding each other very close, she immediately turns around, "Ooooh." she says blushing, "Errm..am I interrupting something" she asks.

"Yes" says Vala, then she turns to see who it is, "OH..Alisana..no, no." says Vala as she quickly stands up and fastens the top button of her shirt.

"What...what err...what are you doing here?" asks an embarrassed Daniel.

Alisana is still facing the door with her back turned on them, "I just came to see if you needed any help." she says.

"Sure, yeah...we could use some help." says Daniel.

Vala goes over and stands in front of Alisana, "Good to see you...how are you?" she says as she leans in and hugs Alisana, while she does that she looks at Daniel with a cringing expression, then she releases her hug and smiles at Alisana and spins her around and marches her towards the table, "Come on in." says Vala.

They all stand around the table looking at and smiling at each other, looking a little awkward.

"So, how can I help?" asks Alisana.

"Well..." says Daniel while he thinks, "Oh...why don't you help Vala with those books." he says with a big smile while pointing at the box of books.

"Yes, help me with the books." says Vala, "I love books. Don't you?" she adds.

Alisana nods, "Sure" she says, then she goes over to the box.

Vala looks at Daniel with hatred and then follows Alisana to the box of books.

* * *

Vala and Alisana spend some time organising the books in to different sizes, types and languages, but the table near the door is getting full and soon there's no more room for any more books to fit, Vala stacks the last of the books from the box in to Alisana's extended arms, stacked so high she can barely see over them, "There." says Vala as she places the final book on the stack.

Alisana turns towards the table of books but sees there's no more room, "Daniel, we've ran out of room here, where do you want us to put these?" asks Alisana, struggling with the weight of the books stacked in her arms.

Daniel looks around but can't really see a place to put them, "Just put them on the corner here." he says whiles pointing at the far end of the table he's standing at.

"OK." says Alisana and she walks towards the table, "You could help." she adds while looking at Vala.

"Nah, you're doing fine." says Vala.

As Alisana reaches the table and bends down a little to rest the stack of books on the corner, she slides them on to the table top.

Daniel stands up when he realises an object has been left in the way, "Watch the..." he says while leaning across the table to try and move it out of the way, but he's too late, the stack of books hits the object causing it to fall off the table.

"Oops." says Alisana.

The vase shaped object rolls across the floor towards the wall as Daniel, Vala and Alisana watch helplessly, it hits the wall and cracks.

Alisana looks at Daniel, "Daniel, I'm so sorry." she says apologetically.

"No it's not your fault, I should have moved it." replies Daniel.

"Oh it'll be fine, a bit of glue, some tape..." says Vala while walking towards the object, but she's suddenly knocked back when smoke begins funnelling out from the crack in the object, she backs away from it.

Daniel moves around the table and stands with Alisana and Vala by the door as they watch in shock as the smoke slowly erupts out, as they continue to watch they start to see a silhouette appearing from within the smoke, as it begins to clear, they see a small humanoid thing seemingly floating in mid air.

It floats in mid air with its arms and legs crossed, it's about 3 feet tall it's red in colour and has a small orange horn sticking out of the front of it's head, pointy black teeth, finger and toe nails, wearing a ripped and torn rag shirt, it opens it's eyes which are yellow and appear like those of a cat, it looks around the room.

"Hello." says Daniel, slowly and cautiously.

The thing hears him speak and turns its head very quickly to glare at Daniel, Vala and Alisana stood by the door.

They all jump a little, "Err...Daniel?" says Vala as she hooks her arm around Daniel's.

The thing unfolds it's arms and legs, still floating in mid air, it takes a deep breath, "I...am Molo." it says in a loud deep voice, it can be heard echoing all over the SGC and everyone on base heard it.

Daniel looks at Molo in awe, not expecting such a deep voice to come from something it's size, he then reaches over to the side of the door and pushes the alarm button.


	2. Chapter 2

Mitchell and Teal'c are down in the gym teaching combat skills to recruits when they hear the alarm, Mitchell goes over to a bench and picks up his radio, "This is Mitchell, what's going on?" he says.

"We don't know yet, Colonel." replies Walter from the control room.

"Who sounded the alarm?" asks Mitchell.

"The alarm was activated from Dr Jackson's office." replies Walter.

Teal'c and Mitchell look at each other then start running out of the gym, "You guy's wait here." shouts Mitchell, talking to the recruits in the gym.

Two S.O's reach Daniel's office and are a little shocked when they see Molo floating in the air, they raise their guns and train them on Molo, Daniel, Vala and Alisana step out of the way.

Molo sees the guns and knows they're a threat, he looks and growls at the S.O's. Just then Carter comes running in, followed shortly by Teal'c and Mitchell, "Wohw." shouts Carter, they all stand shocked and puzzled for a moment.

"Daniel, what is this thing?" asks Mitchell.

"I don't know." replies Daniel, "It just appeared from inside that." he says while pointing to the object by the wall.

"I am Molo." says Molo in a deep loud voice.

"It looks evil, shoot it!" says Vala, still clinging on to Daniel's arm.

Mitchell takes a side arm from an S.O's holster, takes a few steps forward and points it at Molo, "What are you?" he asks.

Molo looks at Mitchell with a grin, "I am Molo." he says, looking like he loves himself.

"Yeah you said that. But WHAT are you?" replies Mitchell.

"I am M..."

At this point Daniel steps forward and interrupts, "OK...you know what, lets try this a different way." he says, "We know your name. What we want to know is what..you..are?, we're human, what are you?" asks Daniel.

Molo looks a little distant for a second, "I am Molo." he says once again with a grin.

Daniel rubs his eyes for a moment in frustration, "OK you can shoot him." he says as he turns and walks away.

* * *

Before Mitchell has a chance to decide whether or not to shoot him, two strips of light appear around the object, thin beams of light start fanning out like lasers a few feet in front of the object and project a rectangular shape that looks like a display screen.

Everyone cautiously walk over to Mitchell and stand watching the projection, the face of a man appears and begins to speak..

"_Greetings, I am Karei of the people of Tosus. Almost a years ago in my time frame, a vessel crashed in the wastelands of Tosus, we investigated the wreck and discovered 49 beings in a deep sleep in pods within the vessel. The pods were removed and taken back to our city for examination, when the pods were opened the beings awoke and we were excited at finally meeting a race that was not of our world._

_However, our initial excitement soon turned to regret when they began a rein of chaos, they possessed the ability to do things that were beyond our comprehension, using magic and trickery they terrorised our people and many lives were lost, it was devastating to us but the beings appeared to enjoy it, like it gave them pleasure and amusement._

_They had to be stopped and after several months of work our scientists were able to reverse engineer technology found in the wreckage of their vessel and use it to create a device, the Triplex._

_The Triplex was capable of containing and holding these beings in stasis indefinitely and 49 of them were created, it was not an easy task but eventually we managed to contain all of them within the Triplex devices._

_We were going to bury them in the wastelands, but our people refused, afraid they would one day escape from stasis our people demanded they be removed from our world, so we shot the Triplex's in to space and hoped we would never see them again._

_If you're seeing this then the Triplex in your possession has been breached and regrettably the being within has been released._

_We don't know where they came from or what they are, but we know their true nature and what they're capable of, you must NOT let them free._

_It's abilities will have been greatly weakened by the stasis, but you must reseal the Triplex and contain the being inside as quickly as possible, if you do not, then it will soon regain all it's strength and abilities and your world will suffer the same fate as ours._

_Act quickly...Farewell_."

The message ends and the lights on the Triplex go out, Molo is now now has his arms and legs folded again, grinning mischievously.

* * *

"That doesn't sound good." says Alisana.

Vala nudges Mitchell really hard on the back of the shoulder, "What are you waiting for, shoot it." she says.

"I think we should do what Karei said." says Daniel, "We need to fix that thing." he adds.

Teal'c gets his determination face on and starts walking over to the Triplex, as he gets near the wall and reaches down to pick it up, Molo waves his arm and Teal'c is knocked backwards and sent sliding across the floor hitting the wall on the opposite side of the room.

"Teal'c." shouts Mitchell, then he and the S.O.'s open fire on Molo but the bullets go straight through him, hitting the wall behind.

As they stop firing, Alisana walks towards the Triplex, "I'll get it." she says, but then Molo lifts both of his arms, then the Triplex floats upwards off the floor, it splits in to three pieces and the pieces slowly spin in a vertical circle in front of Molo.

"Ha-ha, Oh come on, you didn't think it would be that easy did you." says Molo.

"Give us the the Triplex" shouts Carter.

"NO" replies Molo angrily, then he thinks for a moment while he looks at SG-1 as if reading their minds, "I suppose you did set me free." he says, "Lets play a game shall we. Ha-ha." he adds.

"What kind of game?" asks Daniel.

"It will take a few hours for my powers to return to me." says Molo, "If you can find a reseal the Triplex by then...then so be it." he adds.

"And if we don't?" asks Daniel.

"Then this world and the people on it, will be mine." says Molo, quite seriously.

"What did you mean..find the Triplex?. It's right there." asks Carter.

Molo laughs, then with a clap of his hands, one by one the pieces vanish.

"I guess that's what he means." says Alisana, not looking too confident.

"But they could be anywhere, how are we suppose to find them?" asks Carter.

"Oh they're...around here somewhere." says Molo, "Ha-ha" he adds.

"Come on we have to find those pieces." says Carter, they all exit the room, Mitchell and the S.O's back out slowly keeping a close eye on Molo as they leave, they gather outside the room in the hall.

"OK we need to spread out. You two.." says Carter, "Find as many people as you can and tell them to start looking for the pieces." she adds.

The S.O's and everyone else on base apart from SG-1 suddenly vanish in plumes of smoke, "Aht-ah, that's cheating." says Molo's deep voice, "Find it yourselves. Ha-ha." he adds, everyone is starting to feel very annoyed and frustrated.

"This will be most difficult." says Teal'c.

"Alright, we don't have a lot of time. I say we split up and search every room and everywhere we can." says Mitchell.

"Agreed." says Carter.

"OK, grab a radio and if you find something let the others know. Lets go." says Mitchell, and they all split up and head off to search for the Triplex.


	3. Chapter 3

SG-1 have learnt the true nature and intentions of the 'being' known as Molo, he plans to take Earth as his own and terrorise the population for his amusement, the only way to stop him is to seal him back inside the Triplex stasis device, but it wouldn't be that simple.

Molo scattered the three pieces of the Triplex around the SGC and now SG-1 have only a couple hours in which to find and unite them before Molo regains his full powers, they split up and begin to search.

SG-1 have been searching for the Triplex for a little over and hour now, looking in every room, cupboard, locker, box and bin they could find but so far have come up empty handed.

Mitchell is searching the locker room down by the gym, he painstakingly searched all of the 100 plus lockers using a crowbar to pry the locked ones open, rummaging through dirty smelly clothes and bags and emptying the contents of the lockers out on to the floor, he just finished searching the final locker but has come up empty.

He slams the locker door shut in frustration then takes one last look around at the mess on the floor, he then exits the room and heads towards the gym, when he gets there he steps inside and takes a quick look around scanning the room with his eyes, over in the far corner a punching bag hangs from the ceiling, looking on top of the gently swaying punching bag he sees a piece of the Triplex.

"Got ya." he says smiling as he walks over to it.

Mitchell picks up the piece from the top of the punching bag and after taking a quick look to ensure it is indeed a piece of the Triplex, he pulls out his radio, "This is Mitchell...I got a piece." he says.

"You have?, where was it?" replies Carter.

Mitchell turns around to face the bunching bag, giving it a little punch, "In the gym." he says.

"OK that's great, we need to keep looking though, still two pieces to find." says Carter.

"Will do." says Mitchell then he lowers his radio and throws the Triplex piece in the air like a baseball and catches it back in his hand, while smiling he turns around ready to head back towards the door.

* * *

As he turns and takes a step forward, he suddenly stops when he sees 8 Sodan warriors standing by the door, the warriors are big and heavy built, wearing no shirts, strange tattoo markings cover their upper bodies and they're carrying Krantu melee weapons.

"Oook." whispers Mitchell to himself as he stares at them.

Mitchell begins slowly lifting his radio but before he has a chance to speak, a Sodan appears behind him and knocks it from his hand with his Krantu, he then quickly sweeps the Krantu upwards towards Mitchell's neck, Mitchell bends his upper body backwards, throws the Triplex piece on to a mat at the corner of the room and then grabs the Krantu with his right hand, he curls towards the Sodan using his left elbow to whack him in the face.

The Sodan is knocked back and releases the Krantu which Mitchell is now holding, the Sodan joins the others by the door rubbing his now bruised chin, Mitchell takes a defensive stance holding the Krantu with both hands, the Sodan separate and fan out forming a circle surrounding Mitchell and they too have their Krantu's held and ready.

Molo's deep mischievous laughter echoes through the room, "This is not good." whispers Mitchell as the Sodan circle him.

Suddenly the Sodan let out a fighting roar and lift their weapons, they run towards Mitchell with them held in the air, Mitchell looks around and then kneels on the floor holding his Krantu above his head a split second before the Sodan swipe theirs down towards him, Mitchell manages to block the sharp blades hitting him and he pushes upwards, knocking the Sodan backwards.

Mitchell sweeps the Krantu around at the Sodan's feet causing them to step further away as he gets to his feet, one by one the Sodan run at Mitchell and begin attacking, Mitchell manages to use his skills to fend them off for a while, cuts and bruises are made to everyone involved as they continue to fight.

Two Sodan launch an assault on Mitchell from back and front, he blocks their blades but the Krantu is knocked from his hands, he uses his fists to fight back, avoiding and grabbing hold of the Krantu as they lunge towards him he punches at the Sodan on any part of their body he can get access too, he kicks one of them in the stomach but as the Sodan regains himself he sweeps his Krantu at Mitchell and badly cuts his arm, then he is knocked off his feet and sent flat on his back by a Sodan behind him.

A Sodan stands over Mitchell and grabbing his Krantu with both hands he raises it and plans to use it like a knife to kill Mitchell.

Mitchell sees it but is defenceless and crosses his arms over his face trying to defend himself however he can, as the Sodan lunges his weapon downwards, he's suddenly spun around and receives a very nasty uppercut punch move to the chin, the Sodan goes flying and hits the wall behind Mitchell, then as the Sodan lands on the ground he vanishes in a plume of smoke.

"Colonel Mitchell." says Teal'c as he stands over him holding out his hand.

Mitchell removes his arms from over his face, "Teal'c?" he says.

"Yes." says Teal'c, then he grabs Mitchell's hand and lifts him to his feet.

"Thank God." says Mitchell, relieved he finally has some help, "Look out!" he shouts as a Sodan approaches.

Teal'c grabs the Krantu in the Sodan's hands and they both hold it, a battle of strength ensues as they struggle to twist and turn the weapon on each other, Teal'c eventually wins and as he turns the Krantu towards the Sodan he forces it in to his stomach winning the fight, once again the Sodan vanishes in a plume of smoke.

"I don't think these guy's are real Sodan." says Mitchell.

"Perhaps one of Molo's tricks." replies Teal'c.

As Teal'c and Mitchell stand near the back of the room, the remaining Sodan roar once again as they charge forward, "This is going to be a long day." says Mitchell as he and Teal'c charge towards them.

Together they fight the remaining Sodan for several more minutes, they finally start to win the fight and Teal'c grabs one by the neck and crotch and lifts him up over his head, then turns and throws him at another Sodan running towards him, as they hit they stab each other with their Krantu weapons and vanish in smoke.

Mitchell punches one Sodan and then another straight after, knocking them both to the floor, "Ha..ha" he shouts with success, as he turns in self celebration a Sodan rugby tackles him and carries Mitchell forward running him in to the wall, Mitchell has the wind knocked out of him and is pinned to the wall, he uses his elbow to pound on the back of the Sodan's neck which is enough to force him to let go.

As Mitchell is let go and slides down the wall to the floor, he punches the Sodan twice really hard in the face, then grabs his shoulder blades and head butts him, "Oo..ouw." crys Mitchell, holding his head and stomping his foot in pain, he turns in anger and punches the Sodan once more in the face, knocking him unconscious and he vanishes.

"Colonel Mitchell." shouts Teal'c, struggling to fight off the remaining Sodan.

Mitchell is a little wobbly on his feet, dizzy from head butting the Sodan, "Coming Teal'c." he says as he wobbles over to him, as he approaches he swings and punches a Sodan out of Teal'cs way and Mitchells momentum causes him to fall to the floor.

Teal'c is in a fight and grabs the Krantu, then punches the Sodan several times in the side of the head until he lets go of it, he then stabs the Sodan, as he hears the remaning attackers approaching from behind, Teal'c kneels to the floor as he spins and turns around, throwing the Krantu through the air behind him, the Krantu slices through the remaining Sodan and sticks in the wall behind.

All the Sodan have been taken care of and vanished in smoke, Teal'c gets to his feet and walks over to Mitchell who's laying on the floor, he reaches down and hoists him up.

"Did we get em?" asks Mitchell with a groan.

"We did Indeed, Colonel Mitchell." replies Teal'c.

"Let's get out of here." says Mitchell and they both walk, limping, covered in bruises and cuts towards the door.

Mitchell stops, "Oh wait." he says as he walks over to a mat and picks up the piece of the Triplex, he holds it up and shows it to Teal'c, "Can't forget this thing." he says, then they leave.


	4. Chapter 4

Mitchell and Teal'c found the first piece of the Triplex, but Molo didn't make it easy for them to keep it, he conjured up a group of Sodan warriors to stop them but together Teal'c and Mitchell successfully beat them and are now heading back to the others.

"Everybody this is Mitchell." says Mitchell over the radio.

Carter is walking down the hall when she hears the radio and stops, "Go ahead." she says.

"You better be careful if you find a piece of the Triplex, Molo played a trick on us." says Mitchell.

"What kind of trick?" asks Daniel.

"He sent a group of Sodan after us, we almost got our butts kicked." replies Mitchell, "Molo isn't playing around, they almost killed us, be careful." he says.

"Copy that." says Carter and she continues walking down the hall, as she turns a corner she sees Alisana walking towards her at the opposite end, "Find anything?" she asks.

Alisana shrugs, "Nope, nothing." she says.

"Well this is my lab, lets take a look in here." says Carter, her lab is the only room between her an Alisana, as they both get to the door they look inside and on a table at the far end of the room they see a piece of the Triplex, they look at each other and smile, "Found one." says Carter, they both turn with excitement and run in to the room.

They reach the table and Alisana picks it up, "Two down, one to go." she says.

* * *

As Carter and Alisana reach the door to Carter's lab, it slides closed locking them inside, they look at the door puzzled, then they hear a faint humming behind them, they slowly turn around and see the Naquadah generator Carter has been working on sitting on the table in the middle of the room and it's powering up.

"It's powering up, we need to turn it off." says Carter, "Grab the control key." she says pointing to the corner of the table as they walk over.

Alisana gets to the corner of the table and reaches out for the key, but before she can grab it it floats up in to the air, "Carter" she says while watching it, as Carter turns and sees the key floating in the air, it begins to spin very rapidly and then hundreds of keys burst out from it landing all over the tables and floors of the lab.

They hear Molo's mischievous laugh, just like how Mitchell heard it down in the gym.

"Oh boy." says Carter.

"What, what's happening?" asks Alisana.

"The generator is going to overload." says Carter.

"Well turn it off." says Alisana.

Carter places her arms on the table and hunches down facing the generator, she then looks back up, "This is an early prototype for the next generation of Naquadah generators, it doesn't have a control piece like the others, the only way to turn it off is with the deactivation key." she says.

Carter then steps back and waves her hands around, "A key which now buried somewhere in all of this." she says, frustrated.

"Then we better start trying keys." says Alisana, "Right." replies Carter.

They start picking up handful's of keys off the floor and trying them one by one in the port at the side of the generator, key after key after key they try but none of them are working, they continue the process for a little over 5 minutes.

Carter gathers a bunch of keys from the tops of the tables around the room and hurries back over to the generator, as she does she sees Alisana trying keys and then throwing them over her shoulder back on to the floor.

"Alisana." shouts Carter in disbelief.

"What?" replies Alisana, still trying keys.

"You're throwing the ones you've tried back on to the floor." says Carter, "You're mixing them back up with the ones we haven't tried yet." she adds.

Alisana stops trying keys, "Well what do you want me to do with them." she asks.

"Put them aside somewhere so we know which we've tried and which we haven't." replies Carter as she comes over.

"OK I'm sorry." says Alisana, "It's very stressful." she adds.

* * *

They continue trying more and more keys but still haven't found the right one, the pressure and life threatening situation begins to get to them, Carter is standing at the generator struggling to get a key out of the port, she gets frustrated and chucks the rest of the keys she's holding on to the floor.

"This is pointless. We're never going to find it in time." she shouts.

Alisana comes over holding a big bunch of keys, dropping a few as she walks, "We just have to keep trying." she says.

"We have about 10 minutes before this thing goes critical and we'll never check all these keys in time." says Carter.

"Well isn't there another way to turn this thing off?" asks Alisana.

"No." replies Carter, sounding quite hopeless.

"There has to be some way to do it." shouts Alisana.

"Well there isn't." says Carter, "You're suppose to be super smart, why don't you turn it off." she adds.

Alisana drops the bunch of keys she's holding, "Are you making fun of me now?" she asks angrily.

"No I'm not making fun of you, but you're meant to be really smart, you should know how to fix this no problem." says Carter.

Alisana takes a few steps forward towards Carter, pushing keys out of the way with her feet as she does, "I don't know anything about this technology, you're the one who built it, so turn it off." she shouts.

"I told you there's no way to..." says Carter, who is then slapped across the face by Alisana.

A shocked Carter looks at Alisana, "Ouch." she says, "What did you do that for?" she adds.

"Get a hold of yourself." shouts Alisana, "You're the great Samantha Carter, I read all your mission reports and I know you can do this. We're not dying here, so get a grip and turn this thing off." she says, quite firmly.

Carter stares at her for a moment in disbelief, "OK. OK." she says.

"OK" says Alisana.

* * *

They step around the table to the front of the generator, "Hand me those tools" says Carter, and Alisana passes her a set of tools from the table opposite.

"So what's the plan?" asks Alisana as she watches Carter remove the top of the generator casing.

The casing comes off revealing a central chamber with a Naquadah core and several wires attached to it, "Well we need to disconnect the power from the core, problem is if we touch the inner casing or cut the wrong wire in the wrong sequence then it'll blow prematurely." she explains, as she rubs her saw cheek.

"I'm sorry I slapped you." she Alisana.

"It's OK." replies Carter, "It was pretty hard though." she adds.

Carter gently pulls out a metal ring from around the core that has wires attached to it, "OK hold this." she says to Alisana, "But hold it still, don't let it touch the inner casing." she adds.

"Got it?" asks Carter, "Got it!" replies Alisana as she holds the ring steady.

"OK, cutting the first wire." says Carter as she reaches over with a pair of cutters, as she cuts the wire the lights on the side of the generator change colour, she continues the process and cuts 4 more wires successfully and three wires remain.

Alisana looks back and forth at Carter, "What?..why are you stopping?" she asks.

"Dr Hanson was working on the generator this morning, there's suppose to be a pink wire on here." says Carter, "There's only red, blue and green." she adds.

"Which means?" asks Alisana.

"It means I don't know which one to cut, if I cut the wrong one we're dead." replies Carter, worryingly, "We've got about 2 minutes before this thing blows." she adds.

Carter and Alisana stare at each other not sure what to do at this point, it appears Dr Hanson changed the colour of the wire while he was working on it earlier that day, now Carter doesn't know which is the correct wire that needs to be cut in order to shut the generator down and time is running out as the humming of the generator rapidly increases, indicating an overload is about to occur.

"Just pick one and cut it. If it doesn't work we're dead anyway right?" says Alisana, gently smiling at Carter.

Carter reaches over and gives Alisana a sideways hug, "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe?" she says with a laugh.

Alisana laughs with her, "Sure." she says.

"OK. ….. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe..." says Carter as she reaches between the wires with the cutters one by one, "Here we go." she says as they hold hands and close their eyes, she cuts the wire.

The generators humming slows and in a few seconds it shuts down, Carter opens one eye followed by the other, "It worked." she says.

Alisana opens her eyes and looks, "Are we still alive?" she asks.

"Yes we are." replies Carter.

They look at each other as the door of the lab slides open, "Lets get out of here." says Carter, "Yeah." says Alisana, and they pick up the piece of the Triplex and run out as quick as they can.

"This is Carter, we found another piece. Mitchell we'll meet you back at Daniel's office." says Carter over the radio, and they head off down the hall.


	5. Chapter 5

Daniel and Vala are in the mess hall, they've search an entire floor of rooms and come up empty, feeling tired and hopeless, Vala grabs a packet of nuts of the counter then walks over to a table and sits down, putting her feet up on the table she sits down and opens the packet of nuts.

Daniel is kneeling on the floor checking a cupboard in the corner, "Are you helping me look for these things or what?" asks Daniel as he sees Vala sitting down.

"Yes, Daniel." replies Vala.

"Well you're not going to find them there are you." says Daniel, "Get up and help me." he says.

Vala begins eating the nuts, tilting her head back and dropping them in to her mouth from above, "We've been searching for hours, I'd say its pretty hopeless at this point." she says.

Daniel takes a frustrated breath and then hears Carter's announcement over the radio that she found another piece and was heading back to Daniel's office.

"You see, did you hear that?" says Daniel, "There's still hope. Stop whining and help me." he adds.

Vala takes her feet off the table, "It's not here Daniel, we've searched everywhere already, unless you want to start opening tins of food I don't think we're going to find it in here." she says.

Daniel looks in to the messy cupboard he's kneeling at and then places his hand on the top and lifts himself up, "Yeah, I guess." he says, "The Generals office and briefing rooms are next, let's try there." he says.

Vala watches Daniel as he walks towards the mess hall door, "Daniel I'm tired, Can't we just stay here for a while." she says.

"No. Let's go." says Daniel as he walks out.

Vala ignores him and eats a few more nuts, then places her feet back on the table and sits back to relax, a few moments later Daniel swiftly walks back in to the room, he grabs Vala's hand and pulls her to her feet and walks her out of the room, "Daniel!" says Vala, moaning and complaining.

* * *

Carter and Alisana are walking back to Daniel's office when they see Mitchell and Teal'c getting off the elevator, "Carter, there you are." says Mitchell.

"Wohw, are you two alright?" asks Carter, looking at their cuts and bruises.

"We will be fine." says Teal'c, Mitchell looks at him, "Speak for yourself, I'm going to be in need of some serious R'n'R after this." he says, "Still...at least we got this." he adds, holding out the piece of the Triplex.

Alisana is holding the other one and reaches out and takes the piece from Mitchell, "Oh let me see." she says.

"We still have another piece to find, times running out. We should head back to Daniel's office." says Carter.

As they head off together down the hall, Daniel and Vala had reached the Generals office and checked looked it over, they didn't find anything and are now just finishing the briefing room.

Daniel stands with a blank expression as he watches Vala crawl out from under the briefing room table, "Find anything?" he asks, "Yes, the cleaners aren't doing a very good job of vacuuming under here." replies Vala, "Well come on." she says, holding out her hand waiting for Daniel to help her up.

As Vala dusts herself off with her hands, Daniel turns around and looks of the large window overlooking the gate room, looking down he sees the last piece of the Triplex resting on the gate ramp, "Vala" he says, "What?" asks Vala as she comes over.

Daniel briefly points down to the ramp, "I think we found it." he says.

"Well lets go get it." says Vala as she walks off and down the spiral staircase to the control room.

"Vala." says Daniel as they come to a stop at the control room window.

"What now?" asks Vala.

Daniel reaches for his radio, "Let me tell the others first. You remember what happened to Mitchell." he says, fiddling with his radio.

"Oh for goodness sake, Daniel. It's just sitting there." says Vala, she runs down the stairs and in to the gate room.

"Vala..wait." shouts Daniel, "Never listens to me." he says to himself while still fiddling with his radio, "Why don't you ever listen." he shouts down the stairs, "What's wrong with this thing!" he says, trying to get the radio to work.

Vala reaches the ramp and picks up the piece of the Triplex, she turns and holds it up so Daniel can see it, "You see, nothing happened." she shouts.

Then she feels a sharp prick on her hand and drops the piece on the floor, "Ouw" she says holding her hand, "What, what is it?" asks Daniel over the comms, "It cut me." replies an angry Vala.

Suddenly tiny bits of metal start rising from the ground like an ant hill and lifting the Triplex piece along with it, Vala backs away and runs out back up to the control room, Daniel seals the doors as she runs through them, using the emergency button to shut the doors also sets off the base alarms.

Vala and Daniel stand watching threw the window at the mound of metal, it 'swallows' the Triplex piece and then the pieces of metal take shape, a form.

* * *

The others who were on their way back to Daniel's office heard the alarm and ran to the control room to see what's happening when they were unable to contact Daniel on the radio, "Daniel" shouts Mitchell as they all run up the stairs, "Why did you set off the alarm?" he asks.

Both Daniel and Vala point at the window, they look out of it and realise what's going on.

"Replicators." says Daniel in a worried tone of voice.

Five Replicators have formed in the gate room and are scurrying around, one of them looks different to the others and carries the Triplex piece inside of it, Teal'c goes over to a locker at the back of the room that contains a small number of emergency weapons and he brings them over and hands them out.

Mitchell loads a shotgun, "Five Replicators...shouldn't be a problem." he says.

Teal'c and Mitchell head down the stairs carrying shotguns and tuck themselves against the wall at either side of the large door, "OK, open the door." says Mitchell over the radio, as the door slides open they run inside and open fire on the Replicators scattered around the floor, walls and ceiling.

It takes a minute or so but using the shotguns they manage to take out four of the Replicators, the final one carrying to Triplex piece makes a jump at Mitchell and Teal'c and they both turn around and shoot it at the same time, the Replicator breaks in to pieces and the Triplex piece drops to the floor.

"What did I tell ya, piece of cake." says Mitchell, bending down to pick up the Triplex piece, as they head towards the door it slides shut, they turn around and the other door also slides shut locking them in the gate room.

* * *

Then the Stargate starts spinning and once again Molo's deep mischievous laugh is heard in the room.

Carter quickly sits at a console trying to open the doors, "Open it up." shouts Mitchell, "I can't, the override isn't working." replies Carter, "We have an incoming wormhole." she adds.

"Close the IRIS" says Daniel.

"I'm trying, it won't let me." says Carter trying everything she can.

As the Stargate activates and a connection is made, Mitchell and Teal'c take a few steps back and load their shotguns, a few seconds later Replicators start pouring through the gate, climbing and clambering over it and up the walls, they open fire and step back as the gate room slowly fills up with the little buggers.

"Carter get the doors open!" shouts Mitchell over the noise and gunfire.

Carter and Daniel run down the stairs and to the gate room door, Carter opens a box at the side of the door an pulls the manual override lever down, she looks at the door but nothing happens, she pushes the lever up and down again and the door opens about an inch but then stops, "We need leverage." she shouts.

Daniel looks around frantically for something to use, he sees a thin pipe running up the back wall and he and Carter over to it, they pull and yank at it but can't pull it free, Daniel looks behind and stands with his back pressed against the wall, "Get out of the way." he says, then with his back pressed against the wall he raises his foot on to the side of the pipe and begins to kick at it, the bottom part breaks free and steam comes out of it.

Mitchell and Teal'c are quickly running out of ammo and being forced back in to a corner of the room by the increasing number of Replicators.

"Ouw." says Daniel as he tries to grab the pipe and burns himself a little on the steam, Carter removes her jacket and wraps it around her hands, using it to grab hold of the pipe she yanks it off, "Got it." she shouts, and she runs over to the door with it and wedges it into the inch wide gap of the door, "Pull" she says as her Daniel pull with all their strength trying to lever the door open.

The door begins moving slightly and Mitchell and Teal'c notice and lend a hand, Teal'c stands while Mitchell sits and they push with their hands and feet through the gap while Daniel and Carter continue to leverage outside, eventually a big enough gap is created and Mitchell and Teal'c squeeze through it.

"We're not going to be able to close that, the Replicators will get through it." says Carter.

"We must have weapons." says Teal'c, "Right." says Mitchell, he passes Carter the last piece of the Triplex and he and Teal'c run off to the weapons lockers while Carter and Daniel return to the control room.

When they return to the control room they see Replicators climbing up the windows, they start eating through the glass and they all step back, "Get upstairs...find anything you can to defend yourselves." says Carter, "Here take this." she adds as she throws the piece to Alisana.

Daniel, Vala and Alisana start running up the stairs, Carter was about to set the base self destruct when several Replicators break through the glass and enter the control room, one lands on the console in front of Carter and makes her jump, she falls backwards off her chair, "Sam." shouts Daniel as he sees what happened and runs back down the stairs to help her.

As two Replicators run along the floor towards Carter she fends them off with her seat and kicking her feet, Daniel reaches down and grabs her under her arms and pulls her back across the floor towards the stairs and lifts her up, "Let's get out of here." says Daniel and they run up the stairs.


	6. Chapter 6

Carter, Daniel, Vala and Alisana are now in the briefing room above the control room, Replicators can be seen crawling around the glass window and coming up the walls and spiral staircase, they grab all the chairs and a cabinet to try and block them from reaching the room.

"Get back." says Daniel as he stacks the last chair in a pile at the top of the stairs.

Carter goes over to Alisana who's trying to figure out how to use the Triplex, "Any luck?" asks Carter.

"Not yet." replies Alisana, attempting to stack the pieces.

The Replicators bypass the pile of chairs and climb along the ceiling making it in to the room, Vala runs over to the chairs and breaks off a leg, "What are you doing?" asks Daniel, Vala holds and swings the leg like a baseball bat, "Defending myself." she replies, "Good idea." says Daniel and he too goes to break off a chair leg.

Daniel passes Carter a leg and they look up watching the Replicators on the ceiling, as they begin to drop on the floor and tables they swing and hit as many as they can, some shatter in to pieces but some don't, nevertheless they continue fighting them off.

Alisana looks up and covers her face as a Replicator jumps at her from the ceiling, Carter quickly hits it, stopping it from falling on her, then goes off to help the others, Alisana gets up and runs to O'Neill's office and hides behind the wall next to the door so she can continue working on the Triplex.

Replicators start to flood the room and soon there are too many to fend off, as a number of them approach Vala she runs behind a large television set and pushes it over, it lands on several Replicators shattering them to pieces, she swings at a few more that drop from the ceiling, "There's too many." she shouts.

* * *

Teal'c and Mitchell come running in through the door next to O'Neill's office with guns, "Get down." shouts Mitchell.

Daniel runs at Vala and tackles her to the ground covering her and Carter at the other side of the room ducks in to a corner as Mitchell and Teal'c open fire, quickly taking out most of the Replicators in the room, they throw Carter, Daniel and Vala some guns and they all spread out through the room and open fire.

Suddenly a large plume of smoke appears above the briefing room table, "This world is mine." shouts Molo as he emerges through the smoke.

"We're out of time." shouts Carter as she ducks in to O'Neill's office.

"I put it together, it's not working." says Alisana, "You try." she adds as she hands it to Carter.

Everyone in the briefing room turns and fires on Molo, but just as in Daniel's office the shots go right through him and do nothing apart from make him laugh, Molo folds and squeezes his arms inwards and then swiftly opens then causing some type of shock wave to burst from his body.

It strikes Mitchell and sends him flying in to the large stack of chairs by the staircase.

Striking Daniel it sends him flying through the glass window of O'Neill's office and crashing to the floor.

"Daniel" shouts Alisana as she crawls across the floor to tend to him.

Vala and Teal'c are standing by the large window overlooking the gate room when the wave hits them, Teal'c is thrown back and straight through the window closely followed by Vala, he manages to grab the bottom of the window frame and he sees Vala falling past him, he reaches out and grabs her hand and catches her, they're left hanging and holding on for their lives as hundreds of Replicators scurry around the floor below.

* * *

"Why isn't it working, this doesn't make any sense." says Carter.

Daniel groans a little from the impact of the floor, "Closer." he says.

"What?" asks Alisana as she tilts her head and moves it closer to Daniel's mouth, "You have to be closer to use it." says Daniel.

"He said you have to get closer with it." shouts Alisana.

Carter shakes her head slightly, "He'll never let us close enough." she says, "...but I have an idea." she says after thinking for a moment.

Mitchell slowly regains consciousness and looks around and up at Molo, trying not to make any noise, he then looks down and he sees Carter in the doorway at the other side of the room, she's miming with her lips saying "Move out of the way" and waving her hand and holding a grenade, Mitchell understands and nods.

Carter pulls the pin on the grenade and throws it rolling under the table and across the floor towards Mitchell, he see it coming and quickly gets to his feet, still hunched over he runs and jumps out of the way as the grenade hits the stack of chairs and explodes.

As Molo turns around to look at the explosion, Carter runs out of O'Neill's office and throws the Triplex towards Molo, a split second before she threw it, Molo turned and saw her and created another shock wave which knocked Carter off her feet and back through the door in to O'Neill's office, but not before she managed to release the Triplex from her hand...which is now flying towards Molo.

The Triplex passes through the shock wave and Molo doesn't have enough time to react, he starts to vanish in an attempt to get away but it's too late, the Triplex passed through Molo and stops in the center of his body, then two strips of light appear once more on the Triplex and as it intensifies it begins 'sucking' Molo inside it.

All the Replicators and Replicator pieces start vanishing in plumes of smoke all over the base, everything that Molo had created was now vanishing.

Molo is engulfed in light and he too vanishes, the Triplex slowly floats down and lands on the table, the strips of light fade and Molo is once again placed in stasis inside the Triplex.

Mitchell gets to his feet and he and Carter immediately run over to the window and pull Teal'c and Vala back up through it, they rest on the floor.

"Thanks muscles." says Vala as she hugs Teal'c.

"You are welcome." replies Teal'c.

Alisana and Daniel come out of O'Neill's office and sit on the floor with the others.

"Hey Daniel, are you alright?" asks Carter.

Daniel has a bruised head but he's otherwise fine, "Yeah thanks." he says.

Teal'c looks around the room, "Has Molo been rendered impotent?" he asks.

Everyone laughs a little, "That's not exactly how I would put it but yeah, he's gone Teal'c." says Carter.

They all stand up as they see all the damage caused by Molo's trickery starts to be undone and all the SGC personnel reappear on base as if nothing had ever happened, an S.O. Assigned to the briefing room appears and looks bemused when he sees them all standing by the window with cuts and bruises and carrying weapons.

"Colonel...General?!" says the S.O

"It's OK, just a little err...training exercise." says Mitchell.

"Yes Sir." replies the S.O

They all walk over to the table and stare at the Triplex, "So what should we do with this thing?" asks Carter.

"Bury it in a deep dark pit where it'll never be found." says Mitchell.

"I wonder what it was." says Alisana, "I mean where did it come from." she says.

Daniel gently picks it up off the table, "I guess we'll never know. But we know there are at least another 48 of these things out there somewhere." he says.

"Let's hope wherever they are they're somewhere far away from here." says Carter.

"Indeed." says Teal'c.

And with that, SG-1 head off to get some well deserved rest.

The Triplex was taken to a secret location and encased in concrete and steel to ensure it wouldn't be found and Molo would never again be set free, where Molo came from or what he was remains a mystery but they know two things, 48 Triplex devices are still out there unaccounted for and as they crashed landed in a ship on Tosus it's reasonable to believe that they must have originated from somewhere, their home world could still be out there and there's a possibility they could meet them again in the future...who knows.

**The End**.


End file.
